🏭🎗️🗒️Microsoft Fabric: Query Acceleration [Notes] 🆕

Disclaimer: This is work in progress intended to consolidate information from various sources for learning purposes. For the latest information please consult the documentation (see the links below)! 

Last updated: 12-Mar-2025

Query Acceleration [2]

[Microsoft Fabric] Query Acceleration

• {def} 
• indexes and caches on the fly data landing in OneLake [2]
• {benefit} allows to 
• analyze real-time streams coming directly into Eventhouse and combine it with data landing in OneLake 
• ⇐ either coming from mirrored databases, Warehouses, Lakehouses or Spark [2] 
• ⇒ accelerate data landing in OneLake
• ⇐ including existing data and any new updates, and expect similar performance [1]
• eliminates the need to 
• manage ingestion pipelines [1]
• maintain duplicate copies of data [1]
• ensures that data remains in sync without additional effort [4]
• the initial process is dependent on the size of the external table [4]
• ⇐ provides significant performance comparable to ingesting data in Eventhouse [1]
• in some cases up to 50x and beyond [2]
• ⇐ supported in Eventhouse over delta tables from OneLake shortcuts, etc. [4]
• when creating a shortcut from an Eventhouse to a OneLake delta table, users can choose if they want to accelerate the shortcut [2]
• accelerating the shortcut means equivalent ingestion into the Eventhouse
• ⇐  optimizations that deliver the same level of performance for accelerated shortcuts as native Eventhouse tables [2]
• e.g. indexing, caching, etc. 
• all data management is done by the data writer and in the Eventhouse the accelerated table shortcut [2]  
• behave like external tables, with the same limitations and capabilities [4]
• {limitation} materialized view aren't supported [1]
• {limitation} update policies aren't supported [1]
• allows specifying a policy on top of external delta tables that defines the number of days to cache data for high-performance queries [1]
• ⇐ queries run over OneLake shortcuts can be less performant than on data that is ingested directly to Eventhouses [1]
• ⇐ due to network calls to fetch data from storage, the absence of indexes, etc. [1]
• {costs} charged under OneLake Premium cache meter [2]
• ⇐ similar to native Eventhouse tables [2]
• one can control the amount of data to accelerate by configuring number of days to cache [2]
• indexing activity may also count towards CU consumption [2]
• {limitation} the number of columns in the external table can't exceed 900 [1]
• {limitation} query performance over accelerated external delta tables which have partitions may not be optimal during preview [1]
• {limitation} the feature assumes delta tables with static advanced features
• e.g. column mapping doesn't change, partitions don't change, etc
• {recommendation} to change advanced features, first disable the policy, and once the change is made, re-enable the policy [1]
• {limitation} schema changes on the delta table must also be followed with the respective .alter external delta table schema [1]
• might result in acceleration starting from scratch if there was breaking schema change [1]
• {limitation} index-based pruning isn't supported for partitions [1]
• {limitation} parquet files with a compressed size higher than 6 GB won't be cached [1]

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References:
[1] Microsoft Learn (2024) Fabric: Query acceleration for OneLake shortcuts - overview (preview) [link]

[2] Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog (2024) Announcing Eventhouse Query Acceleration for OneLake Shortcuts (Preview) [link]
[3] Microsoft Learn (2024) Fabric: Query acceleration over OneLake shortcuts (preview) [link]

[4] Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog (2025) Eventhouse Accelerated OneLake Table Shortcuts – Generally Available [link] 

Resources:

[R1] Microsoft Learn (2025) Fabric: What's new in Microsoft Fabric? [link]